Bedbugs Take Down Niketown

Forget the recession—bedbugs are the quite possibly the next big threat to the city's retail economy. After already hitting Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret, and the offices of Elle magazine, among other locations, the latest site to fall victim to the bugs is the 95,000-square-foot Niketown on 57th Street.

As reported in today's WWD, the mega-store—a major midtown location for sports enthusiasts and and tourists alike—has been closed (with its lower-level windows papered up) since Saturday when the bugs were first discovered. A call to the store's telephone line results in a voice message stating the store's temporary closure until further notice.

Nike has not announced when it plans to reopen the location or how it intends to eradicate the problem. As this past summer's infestations show, the critters clearly don't discriminate between plaids and polos, lingerie, fashion closets, or activewear—nor are the infestations centralized to a specific area of the city—giving rise to what could soon become a major epidemic for New York's retail scene.

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